Development assistance for health (DAH) has grown substantially, totaling more than $31.3 billion in 2013. However, the degree that countries with high concentrations of armed conflict, ethnic violence, inequality, debt, and corruption have received this health aid and how that assistance might be different from the funding provided to other countries has not been assessed.

We aimed to consolidate all epidemiologic data about untreated caries and subsequently generate internally consistent prevalence and incidence estimates for all countries, 20 age groups, and both sexes for 1990 and 2010.

Easy-to-collect epidemiological information is critical for the more accurate estimation of the prevalence and burden of different non-communicable diseases around the world. The objective of this study was to develop and assess the performance of a symptom-based questionnaire to estimate prevalence of non-communicable diseases in low-resource areas

Pneumonia and diarrhea are leading causes of death for children under 5 (U5). It is challenging to estimate the total number of deaths and cause-specific mortality fractions. Two major efforts, one led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and the other led by the World Health Organization (WHO)/Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) created estimates for the burden of disease due to these two syndromes, yet their estimates differed greatly for 2010.

Up-to-date evidence on levels and trends for age-sex-specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality is essential for the formation of global, regional, and national health policies. In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) we estimated yearly deaths for 188 countries between 1990 and 2013. We used the results to assess whether there is epidemiological convergence across countries.

When unaccounted-for group-level characteristics affect an outcome variable, traditional linear regression is inefficient and can be biased. The random- and fixed-effects estimators (RE and FE, respectively) are two competing methods that address these problems. While each estimator controls for otherwise unaccounted-for effects, the two estimators require different assumptions. Health researchers tend to favor RE estimation, while researchers from some other disciplines tend to favor FE estimation. In addition to RE and FE, an alternative method called within-between (WB) was suggested by Mundlak in 1978, although is utilized infrequently.

Data on obesity from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are nonexistent, making it impossible to determine whether the efforts of the Saudi Ministry of Health are having an effect on obesity trends. To determine obesity prevalence and associated factors in the KSA, we conducted a national survey on chronic diseases and their risk factors.

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), current data on diabetes are lacking, and a rise of the epidemic is feared, given the epidemiologic transition in the country. To inform public health authorities on the current status of the diabetes epidemic, we analyzed data from the Saudi Health Interview Survey (SHIS).

We find that performance is highly dependent on the birth history method applied and how temporal trends are accounted for. We estimated trends in district-level under-5 mortality in Zambia from 1980 to 2010 using the best-performing model. We find that under-5 mortality is highly variable within Zambia: there was a 1.8-fold difference between the lowest and highest levels in 2010, and declines over the period 1980 to 2010 ranged from less than 5% to more than 50%.

We report the burden of disease and risk factors measured by causes of death, years of life lost attributable to premature mortality (YLLs), years of life lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 1990, 2005, and 2010 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Prevalence increased gradually with age, showing a steep increase between the third and fourth decades of life that was driven by a peak in incidence at around 38 years of age. There were considerable variations in prevalence and incidence between regions and countries. Policymakers need to be aware of a predictable increasing burden of SP due to the growing world population associated with an increasing life expectancy and a significant decrease in the prevalence of total tooth loss throughout the world from 1990 to 2010.

From 1999 to 2010, annual disbursements of development assistance for health for vaccinations increased from $0.5 billion to $2.0 billion (all financial values USD 2010). In its 2012 Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), the World Health Assembly recommended establishing a comprehensive vaccination resource tracking system to better understand the source and recipients of these funds, and ultimately their impact on outcomes.

A major challenge in monitoring universal health coverage (UHC) is identifying an indicator that can adequately capture the multiple components underlying the UHC initiative. Effective coverage, which unites individual and intervention characteristics into a single metric, offers a direct and flexible means to measure health system performance at different levels.

Liver cirrhosis is a major yet largely preventable and underappreciated cause of global health loss. Variations in cirrhosis mortality at the country level reflect differences in prevalence of risk factors such as alcohol use and hepatitis B and C infection. We estimated annual age-specific mortality from liver cirrhosis in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010.

This article estimates the causal effect of distance to health facility on in-facility birth in rural India, taking into account the endogenous placement of the health facility.We find that women living farther away from the health facilities are less likely to give birth at a health facility.

Current data on hypertension in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are lacking. We conducted a national survey to inform decision-makers on the current magnitude of the epidemic. We measured systolic and diastolic blood pressure of 10,735 Saudis aged 15 years or older and interviewed them through a national multistage survey.

The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to disease estimation for between 1990 and 2013, and an opportunity to assess whether accelerated progress has occurred since the Millennium Declaration.

Injuries accounted for 11% of the global burden of disease in 2010. This study aimed to quantify the burden of injury in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that could be averted if basic surgical services were made available and accessible to the entire population.

Our review of available quality literature on the epidemiology of tooth loss shows a significant decline in the prevalence and incidence of severe tooth loss between 1990 and 2010 at the global, regional, and country levels.

In 2010, overweight and obesity were estimated to cause 3.4 million deaths, 3.9% of years of life lost, and 3.8% of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) worldwide. We estimate the global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–2013.